A brassiere strap slide has, in the past, frequently comprised a frame having a pair of bars or limbs separated by a cross bar which defined oval slots with those limbs. The brassiere strap passes from one side of that slide body through one of the oval slots, around the cross bar, out through the other slot and then again along the outer limb of the slide.
Problems with the slipping of the slide are discussed in my copending application Ser. No. 09/304,876 filed May 4, 1999 and incorporated in its entirety herein by reference.
The brassiere strap passing through the slide can engage through a ring attached to a brassiere cup so that with movement of the slide along the strap or with movement of the strap through the slide the effective length of the strap and hence the effective length of a shoulder strap of the brassiere can be relatively adjusted.
The free end of the strap segment returning from the ring can be looped around one of the bars of the slide and stitched to close the loop.
A major problem with such a slide arrangement is the thickness of the unit. For example, since the cross bar was generally of the same thickness as the outer limbs or bars of the slide and had at least two thicknesses of the strip therearound in the loop end of the strip segment from the ring, and the strap segment which was movable in the slide also passed partly around the loop and the cross bar, at least at the cross bar there were three thicknesses of the strap fabric and the overall thickness of the assembly included the cross bar thickness and the three strap thicknesses. At the slider, therefore, the strap system provided for length adjustment was quite bulky, was readily visible through outer garments, frequently pressed uncomfortably against the wearer if the brassiere was tight or tight outer garments were worn over the brassiere, and generally was inconvenient to manipulate.
A somewhat different approach looped the return strap segments from the ring about the lower limb or bar of the slider frame, but here as well there were three thicknesses of the fabric in addition to a thickness of the lower limb or bar.
Efforts to minimize the thicknesses of the outer bars or limbs of the slide to decrease the overall thickness and make the slide arrangement flatter were only partly successful in making the slide less visible beneath outer garments or less bulky.